The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus and more particularly to a facsimile apparatus having a memory function. The invention provides a facsimile apparatus in which received code data is prevented from being lost so as to ensure a printout thereof.
With recent improvements in the picture quality of facsimile apparatuses, the conventional thermally-printed paper type printer where the paper is thermally printed, is being replaced by the non-thermally printed paper type printer where ordinary paper is used. The non-thermally-printed paper type printer employs the thermally-transferring method, xerography method were laser is used, or ink jet method where ink is used.
The facsimile apparatus of the aforementioned types which have a memory function are so constructed that the received code data is stored in a memory, the code data is then read out of the memory and is expanded to be the image data to be printed out, and finally the received data in the memory is erased.
The non thermally-printed paper type printer performs a printout operation in a complex process which is not very reliable. For example, the xerography method suffers from the problem that when contact failure occurs electric power may not supplied to a colotron such as a charged colortron, in which case the apparatus is unable to properly reproduce the received image. Unlike a copying machine, a facsimile apparatus is often not attended by an operator while the apparatus is operative. The malfunction of a printer causes the image to be printed out with a poor quality or a non-printed paper to be outputted and the received code data is simply lost afterwards. Therefore, the receive image may not be faithfully reproduced despite the fact that the communication is operating normally. In such a case, the sender must be identified in the transmission/receipt report and the operator must ask the sender to resend the document. This is quite a nuisance.